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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26821609">Sundown</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/JenCforCarolina/pseuds/JenCforCarolina'>JenCforCarolina</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Auburn and the Warmind [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Destiny (Video Games)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Coworkers to friends</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 00:15:10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,422</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26821609</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/JenCforCarolina/pseuds/JenCforCarolina</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Better late than never, they say.</p><p>(Just getting out the last of my Rasputin feels before Beyond Light.)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Auburn and the Warmind [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1664677</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Sundown</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Auburn wrenches the ancient bunker door open far enough to squeeze her shoulders through. Without Rasputin she has to do it manually, and the hydraulics squeak and protest. Ana frets for a moment, if they can’t close and barricade that again it’s a route for hive or psions- but that doesn’t matter anymore, Rasputin is gone and there is nothing important left for them to find.</p><p>Or there might be, there might be. And that’s what she is looking for.</p><p>She’s a bit surprised Auburn found her so quickly, but maybe she shouldn’t be. This was where he had taken her after all, his time capsule. Ana was working at the station to the left of Felwinter’s crypt, digging for any backups he may have kept in here. Anything that may have survived the destruction.</p><p>“Pyramids are filling the airspace, we gotta go.” Auburn calls across the room, striding down the catwalk. “Those things are scrambling comms and transmat telemetry, but I got my ship tucked up somewhere safe. I’m gonna get you out of here.”</p><p>But Ana is rooted to the console, bracing herself for this argument. “Tell Zavala I’m not done yet. I’ll go when I’m ready.”</p><p>“Not you too. Ana come <i>home</i>.” There’s a sudden pain in Auburn’s voice she doesn’t understand, but she doesn’t have time to understand. She runs another query through the system, searching for him, for any aspect or fragment she’s missed, anything <i>important</i>.</p><p>“You don’t get it.” Ana tries, planting her hands on either side of the console and watching the scan surge through files. “He’s my responsibility, and mine alone. Even Zavala sees that. Just tell him that’s what I’m doing, my responsibility. Dealing with my consequences.”</p><p>“Ana, I want to help him too, I swear.” Auburn pleads. “But you’re in danger and I promised myself I’d get you out.”</p><p>She snorts in disbelief, and Auburn makes an exasperated noise. Ana looks up as the Titan reaches up and tugs her helmet off. Her brow is pinched in frustration and concern. “Why is it so hard to believe that I care? Not just because Zavala told me to but because I give a shit?”</p><p>Ana rocks back from the console, irksome, and turns her attention to this brewing argument. She was trying to <i>avoid</i> this. “Look, whenever we’re on comms, and I’m defending myself against Zavala, I just hear you get quiet. I know we hit it off well, I feel like we could have been friends! And I can tell you’re too nice to chime in and side against me too. I appreciate it, but I wouldn’t like, hold it against you-“</p><p>“No!” Auburn blurts. “It’s because I don’t want him to hear me siding <i>with</i> you.”</p><p>Ana pauses and chews on that. “With me? But you’re- you know…”</p><p>Auburn does a little list of her head, like she suspects where this is going, but is going to make her say it out loud.</p><p>“You <i>know</i>.” She says again. “You’re… a Titan.”</p><p>“And?”</p><p>Ana groans a little in the back of her throat, rocks from her heels to her toes, uncomfortable with acknowledging she’s being unfair. She’s <i>stressed</i> damnit. “Figured you’d be siding with your Commander, no matter what. And… that you’d be kind of stuck up about rules. And maybe think everything I’m doing is too stupid or dangerous. Titan things.” </p><p>She snorts. “We’ve got free will you know. That’s not a Hunter exclusive trait.”</p><p>Ana winces.</p><p>“Trust me, I’ve <i>always</i> sided with you.” Auburn presses again.</p><p>“Well you never <i>told</i> me.”</p><p>Auburn looks ready to snap back, but closes her mouth and looks away, shuffles a bit to fold her arms around her weapon and recede.  Ana watches her like a raptor, thinking steps ahead. She has to win, she has to buy more time to save Rasputin.</p><p>But Auburn sighs, and looks like she’s lost the will to fight already. “Look, we don’t talk a lot, because, well, twelve years ago I opened the Skywatch Array and made a friend.” She looks down at the Ikelos shotgun in her hands, a gift. “Zavala forbade me from contacting him and I listened for a while, but then I started talking to Warsats, and they started talking back, and I- I thought I was special.”</p><p>She turns and paces the room, the discomfort of the discussion spurning her into movement. “You know I was awestruck at it. I can still play it out in my mind, the silhouette of that array unfurling against a winter’s sky. It was pivotal. It was my very second day alive, my very first act as a Guardian. Ghost was looking for a comms link to call for a pickup and instead we found array codes and a Warmind. He was basically the first person I made contact with, besides Scout here.”</p><p>Ana blinks once, and lifts her chin at that. It occurs to her she’s never heard another Guardian so innocuously call Rasputin a person.</p><p>“And then a decade went by and I was following a signal on one of his channels and I got your distress call. He led me to you to help you, all the other Guardians out there and he chose me, but I was just crestfallen because I learned I wasn’t the only one he liked. And you’d been with him much longer. You had more of a connection, you were better friends. You’ve even got that nickname for him.” </p><p>Auburn laughs mirthlessly. “But you know, couldn’t blame you, wasn’t like you had ill intent. I just had to get over it. Did my best.”</p><p>Ana blinks, trying to follow this rapidly developing new direction. “You’re saying… you’re jealous?”</p><p>“Yeah.” She admits, ashamed. “Yeah, I have been, the whole time.”</p><p>It dawns on Ana, all their past conversations suddenly make sense. The moments Auburn got abrasive, the moments she was defensive. The pang of jealousy <i>Ana</i> had felt when Rasputin guided Auburn down here, into his deepest vault. </p><p>It didn’t have to be like this.</p><p>“I’m sorry.” Ana says. “He’s… you know. He didn’t mean to make you feel that way. And I didn’t.”</p><p>“I know. It’s not your fault. I’m sorry too.” Auburn replies, genuine and honest. But Ana rocks a little on her toes. </p><p>“Actually, I’m going to tell you a secret. You absolutely can’t tell Zavala.” Auburn lifts an eyebrow but nods a little. “It won’t hurt anyone. He just doesn’t know exactly how far I’ve been digging into my past, and he wouldn’t like it. I found logs about me, and Rasputin. I actually… programmed him. I was a linguistic anthropologist for Clovis Bray.”</p><p>She gives Auburn an apologetic grin. “I gave him the Shakespeare, the opera, all the music and art. I even tried to teach him how to tell jokes, they were just as bad then as they are now. So, technically, it is my fault. I taught him everything he knows, anything he learned he learned from me, anything he didn’t, well, I failed to teach him.”</p><p>“We can debate the moralistic division of Guardian and pre-guardian lives another time.” Auburn offers, with a twinge of humor. And she does have a soft smile, now. “I won’t tell Zavala, pinky swear. That said, I do feel a lot better. How did I think I could compete with his actual mom for role of favorite person in the universe?”</p><p>Ana barks a laugh. “I am not his mom. Oh, Traveler, am I his mom?”</p><p>Then she remembers the loss filling her gut, and decides that’s a thought for later.</p><p>“I have to try a little longer.” She says firmly. “I have most of him, in an engram. But its not much and… I think if I can find anything that will help me put him back together, it’ll be here.”</p><p>Auburn strides over, looking over her shoulder. Her own expression has returned to something grim. “Scout and I looked around in here before too. Let us help. Two hours, deal? We grab everything we can, and then we get him out of here.”</p><p>Ana takes a steadying breath and nods. “Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Let’s do it.”</p><p>She gets a strong Titan shoulder clap in response. “We fly fast enough and we can tell Zavala we only stayed for one.”</p><p>Ana grins, despite herself, and moves onto her next search parameter. “Wish we’d been co-conspirators sooner than this.” She admits.</p><p>“We were.” Auburn replies, halfway across the room already. “Whether we knew it or not.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>There were so many things I wanted to put into this that just did not fit the flow right. Here are some particularly good bonus lines, as a treat:</p><p>“You are overprotective, you know.” Ana admits.</p><p>“My girlfriend is a Hunter.” Auburn says simply.</p><p>“Ah. Yes, I think you make a lot of sense now.”</p></blockquote></div></div>
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